


Adjustment Period

by youcouldmakealife



Series: Impaired Judgment (and other excuses) [50]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 20:12:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15915432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcouldmakealife/pseuds/youcouldmakealife
Summary: “You know if it doesn’t work out, that’s a hard thing to come back from in a relationship,” she says. “Are you sure you want to take that risk?”“Positive,” Jared says.“Okay,” she says, and finally releases him.





	Adjustment Period

Jared’s parents don’t approve of Jared moving in with Bryce. Jared’s so surprised. This is his surprised face. 

Jared’s smart enough not to bring it up during dinner or something, definitely smart enough not to bring it up when Erin’s in the room. Jared actually waits until Erin’s out of the house entirely, because if she hears drama, she will inevitably be drawn to it like an evil moth to a flame, and she will make things so much worse. 

Not that it’s going great anyway, Jared’s got to say. The set up where his parents sit side by side on the couch across him like a disapproving united front is never something he sees during _good_ moments.

“No,” his dad says, flat and immediate, like Jared actually asked if he could rather than telling them he was doing it.

“It’s a lot of commitment, Jared,” his mom says. “You’re young, and you really haven’t been together that long, and —”

“We’ve been together for over a year,” Jared says. “And I _am_ committed to him. I’m like, sort of asking for your permission here, but I’m an adult, you know I don’t actually need it. So it’s more like — I’m telling you without just like, packing my shit up and going, but I’m still moving in with him even if you say no.”

“You might not even be in Calgary when the season starts,” his dad says.

“So I’ll live with him when I am in Calgary,” Jared says. 

“You won’t have a car,” his dad says. “You can’t just borrow your mom’s car if you’re not even living here.”

Jared shrugs. “I’ll take the bus,” he says. 

“Jared, be serious about this,” his mom says.

“If you haven’t figured out how serious I am about Bryce by now, I really don’t know what to tell you,” Jared says. 

His mom sighs, this ‘you’re being ridiculous’ sigh, and it pisses Jared off.

“I’m moving like, fifteen minutes away,” Jared says. “You know it’ll be three _hours_ away if Edmonton wants me on the roster, right? And what if they hadn’t been the ones to draft me? What if I was packing up for like, fucking Dallas or something? You’re saying I’m too young to move a few kilometres to live with my boyfriend but I’m simultaneously not too young to move to another country _by myself_?”

His mom sighs again, and it sounds a lot like ‘I hate that you’re _not_ being ridiculous’ now.

“Why don’t you take it a little slower?” his mom asks. “Maybe spend a night a week at Bryce’s, see if you get on each other’s nerves. It’s very different, living with someone. You don’t always see them at their best, you know.”

“He’s not going to get on my nerves,” Jared says.

“You might get on his,” his dad mutters.

“If you stay with the Hitmen, you’re not really going to be able to contribute,” his mom says, before Jared can retort to that bit of loving fatherhood. “Financially, I mean. I don’t think you really know how much necessities cost.”

Jared flinches, because of course she hits on the one reservation he does have. And he could say Bryce was making millions and it didn’t matter, and it would be true, because it doesn’t matter to Bryce, he _knows_ it doesn’t matter to Bryce, but it does matter to him.

“Bryce and I already talked about that,” Jared says, a hedge, because he doesn’t have an argument for that one, and he doesn’t want her to know she struck a nerve. You let someone know they’ve hit where it hurts, then they know to keep aiming in that direction, and he’s afraid his parents will — not talk him out of it, exactly, because they won’t, but find that unease in him and help it grow to the point he can’t ignore it anymore.

His dad pulls out the Don Matheson Super Sigh, the one he only uses if you’ve gravely disappointed him. Jared lets it roll right off him. He doesn’t care. The two of them are acting like he’s just announced he’s moving across the country with a dude he met at a bar the night before, not moving downtown with his boyfriend of over a year. If they want to turn it into a whole thing, that’s their prerogative, but Jared’s not playing along.

“I’m going to go pack some stuff and head over there,” Jared says, getting up without waiting for an answer.

“You can’t use the car,” his dad calls as he heads up the stairs to his room.

“That’s fine, cabs exist,” Jared calls back. He’d text Bryce to pick him up, but Jared really, _really_ doesn’t want Bryce within like, a kilometre of his dad right now.

Jared starts with a small suitcase, because anything more than that’s going to be a pain in the ass, and it’s not like it’s far. He’ll bring more stuff later, unless his parents like, kick him out or something. He doesn’t really see that happening, though — ‘no, you can’t move out, also get the fuck out of our house?’. Not a very coherent argument. 

Plus, they’re pissed, he knows they’re pissed, but he’s never really been worried about them exploding at him or anything. Snippy comments? Sure. Passive aggressiveness? His dad is the master. But like, rejecting him as a son? Even when he was shaking with nerves and making up plans to move in with his grandma if coming out didn’t go well, he knew he was being ridiculous. His parents have his back, even when they’re grumbling about his choices — which, legit, is mostly about Bryce, because Jared made pretty good choices before he fell into things with Bryce.

That, by the way, was a _great_ choice, even though he knows his parents don’t agree.

His parents are having a low volume fight when Jared gets downstairs with his bag, which is weird, because they were a pretty damn united front. Sometimes they aren’t, like how his mom was way less ridiculous about Bryce from the get-go, but this time they were. Maybe Jared’s mom is trying to talk his dad out of like, kidnapping him and locking him in his room until he sees ‘reason’ or something.

“So, um,” Jared says awkwardly, and they immediately stop. He doesn’t see them argue much. Like, bicker? Kinda, but any arguments that do happen, if they do, happen away from him and Erin. “I’m going to head out.”

“In a real hurry, eh?” his dad asks, and gets up, goes all dramatically upstairs. There’s some stomping happening.

“Should, I, um—” Jared says. He doesn’t want to follow his dad. Like, at all.

“He’ll calm down,” his mom says, which is true, though Jared has a feeling the next time he comes over is going to be awkward. He didn’t handle this right, he’s pretty sure, but he’s not sure how else he could have done it. He’s not like, blowing what’s potentially the last few weeks he has in Calgary because his dad doesn’t like his boyfriend.

His mom comes over to hug him, and Jared hugs back, but then she like — holds on.

“Oh my god, I’ll come over, like, in a few days,” Jared says. “You don’t act like this when I go on a roadie.”

“It isn’t really the same thing,” she mumbles.

“If I got drafted to literally any other team but the Hitmen I would have moved away when I was sixteen,” Jared says, a little desperate, because if anything, her grip’s tightening. He’s not a big hugger. She isn’t either, really, so usually he’s released long before this point.

“But you didn’t,” she says. Jared swears he hears a sniffle.

“Mom,” Jared says helplessly. “Please don’t guilt me about this.”

“I’m not guilting you,” she says. 

“You’re making me feel guilty,” Jared says.

“You feeling guilty doesn’t mean I’m guilting you,” she says. 

Fucking — logic.

“I’ll come tomorrow for dinner, okay?” Jared says. “We’ll talk about it. But this — I really want to do this, mom.”

“You know if it doesn’t work out, that’s a hard thing to come back from in a relationship,” she says. “Are you sure you want to take that risk?”

“Positive,” Jared says.

“Okay,” she says, and finally releases him.

*

Jared takes his mom’s car to Bryce’s. She insisted, since he’s coming back for dinner tomorrow anyway, and he’s not going to protest like, saving money and not having to sit awkwardly in the backseat of a cab and either make stilted conversation or sit in silent discomfort.

It takes Bryce about two seconds to notice Jared’s suitcase when he comes back from training, possibly because he nearly trips over it in the hallway. Whoops.

Bryce, grace in motion, effortlessly regains his balance before he goes down. Jared’s pretty sure if it was him he’d have landed flat on his ass. 

“You’re moving in?” Bryce asks, smile practically cracking his face. Jared’s never seen someone more happy to almost injure himself on luggage.

“I told you I was,” Jared says. “This is just like, the necessities. I’ll grab more stuff later.”

“They didn’t, like, kick you out or anything, did they?” Bryce asks.

“I think kicking me out would kind of play directly into my hands,” Jared points out. 

“How’d they take it?” Bryce asks, after he kicks off his shoes, comes to the couch, grabbing Jared’s legs and swinging them up into his lap.

“Not the best?” Jared says. “Which I kind of figured was going to happen, so. My dad’s kind of having a tantrum about it, and my mom wanted me to do like, a trial thing where I stay at your place like, once a week, which is bullshit.”

“I mean,” Bryce says. “If your mom wants you to try that —”

“They can’t tell me what to do about it,” Jared says. “I _am_ eighteen.”

“I know,” Bryce says. “But I don’t want them to like, hate me for taking you away or something. We can do it their way for a bit.”

“I don’t want to waste time not being with you just to humour my parents,” Jared says. “That’s stupid, especially since it’s only a few weeks until training camp.”

“Okay, so not like, only once a week, but spend some time at theirs. You know, like go home for dinner,” Bryce says. “I’ll be here.”

“Already told them I’d come over for dinner tomorrow,” Jared says. “So like, if I don’t come back tomorrow night, my dad definitely kidnapped me.”

Bryce laughs, like Jared’s kidding, squeezes Jared’s ankle. “How do you feel about getting Thai?” he asks.

“Always positive,” Jared says, and Bryce calls the place they like, orders from memory.

It doesn’t really feel like he’s moved in over their delivery dinner, or when they watch one of Bryce’s stupid shows, Jared paying more attention to the rise and fall of Bryce’s chest under his cheek than whatever staged dramatics are happening this week. He doesn’t even really feel it when Bryce disappears to his room for ten minutes then proudly shows the drawer he cleared out for Jared, promising he’ll clear out the rest before Jared brings more clothes over.

The first time it really hits Jared is when he’s brushing his teeth with the toothbrush he packed instead of the one Bryce gave him when he stayed over the first time. He’s officially upgraded himself from one with the phone number of a dentist’s office to — honestly it’s not actually a nicer tooth brush, but there’s no random phone number, so. It’s not quite as fancy as Bryce’s electric toothbrush, but Jared can brush his teeth using manpower, thanks. He brought his own toothpaste too — Bryce’s pearly white smile is helped by whitening toothpaste, Jared’s learned, and it makes Jared’s teeth feel weird and sensitive.

After he’s finished he puts the toothbrush down, lays his toothpaste beside Bryce’s, and it’s — he’s not sleeping over here. Well, he is, obviously, but it’s not so much sleeping _over_ as just — sleeping. Sleeping in bed beside his boyfriend, and then waking up beside him, and then tomorrow they’ll do it again. And maybe that won’t last; he’ll be sleeping in a hotel room in Edmonton in mere weeks, but — for now, that’s what he has. And it’s a lot.

Jared marches into the living room, where Bryce is picking up the remains of dinner. “Drop that?” Jared asks, and Bryce like, does. Immediately. Doesn’t even ask why. Hell, he doesn’t even start asking questions until Jared’s mouth is against his throat and Jared’s hand is sliding up the back of his shirt. 

“Whoa,” Bryce says, as Jared goes for the button of his pants with his other hand. “What’s—”

“You want to talk about feelings or you want to have, like, living together sex?” Jared asks.

“We can do both?” Bryce says, but not with a lot of conviction, and any attempt at conversation is completely aborted when Jared gets a hand down Bryce’s underwear.

Jared has to brush his teeth again before bed, because now he has come breath, and he grins at the mirror the entire time.

*

Jared gets his first taste of Bryce’s ‘cooking’ the next morning, if you call toast and peanut butter cooking, which Bryce does. He’s so proud of himself too, so Jared bites his tongue and doesn’t tell him the toast is a little on the um, crispy side, just dials the toaster’s setting down a notch while Bryce showers.

Bryce’s training starts earlier than Jared’s more flexible schedule, so he’s dressed and ready by the time Jared gets out of the shower — next batch of stuff he brings should include his shampoo and body wash, probably, because he likes the smell of it on Bryce, but not so much on himself — and Bryce leaves after telling him to have a good day and kissing him goodbye, which feels very, like. Grown up. That’s probably stupid to say, but that’s how it feels. 

It’s funny, because it’s basically what his mom would do when he was leaving for school when he was a kid, so it shouldn’t _feel_ grown up at all, but it’s kind of different when it’s your boyfriend. Your boyfriend that you live with.

Jared will probably get over that eventually, but he is very much not over it yet.

Jared heads to dinner at his parents’ after he finishes up at the gym, which is a weird reversal — most of the summer he’d go to Bryce’s and hang out there until it was time to go to bed, then head home. Now he’s like, _visiting_ a house he’s lived in since he was a little kid. It’s a strange feeling he figures it’ll take a bit to adjust to.

His parents aren’t home from work yet, so Jared does a second wave of packing, making sure he gets all his toiletries, because he’d like to go back to smelling like himself. It doesn’t take long, so he starts dinner, because he may as well.

“You didn’t have to do that,” his mom says when she comes in, like he’s, you know, actually a guest, and that’s weird. This is all very weird. Like, it’d be one thing if he was visiting from far away, but he was here yesterday, and now it’s all — different. He wonders if it’s as weird for his parents as it is for him. Probably.

Dinner’s ready by the time his dad gets home from a late job. He washes up, Erin emerges from her cave to destroy all the food in her path, and they all sit down to what’s basically a normal Matheson dinner for all of a minute before his dad ruins it.

“I guess Bryce didn’t want to come?” his dad asks, all snotty.

“I don’t remember anyone inviting him,” Jared says.

“Bryce is always welcome for dinner,” his mom says, which is news to Jared, and his dad scowls as he realises his snide comment epically backfired on him.

“I’ll let him know that,” Jared says, and grins at his dad. The scowl deepens.

“You moved out, huh?” Erin asks while grabbing like, half of the garlic bread and piling it on her plate.

“Yeah,” Jared says, wary.

“Dad, can I have his TV?” Erin asks.

“No!” Jared says, over his dad’s, “I don’t see why not.”

“You have your own TV!” Jared says.

“Yours is bigger,” Erin says. “Plus, I bet Bryce has like, a giant one, so you don’t need it.”

Bryce does have a giant TV, plus another big one in his room…and in the guest room…but that is _not the point_. The point is that the TV is _Jared’s_.

“Mom,” Jared complains. “What if I’m moving to Edmonton? I’ll need a TV.”

“If you go up to the Oilers you’ll be making almost fifty thousand dollars a month even without any performance bonuses,” she says. “You can afford to buy your own TV.”

Jared scowls at his pasta. Stupid logic again. Also stupid guilt, because that’s what his mom makes in like, a year, so he can’t continue the TV argument without looking like an asshole. He’ll buy them a TV when he’s making NHL money. Like, an obnoxiously big one. The size of Bryce’s. And like. Other stuff too, obviously. Except for Erin. Erin gets nothing, because she stole his TV.

His dad’s grumpy all through dinner — apparently Bryce’s name has gone back to grunt status, so that’s…great — but he doesn’t like, lock Jared in his room and refuse to let him out, and he even gives Jared a lift to Bryce’s after dinner, so. Success? Jared is down a TV, but he hasn’t been kidnapped, so he guesses today was a win.

Bryce is eating Nutella from the jar in front of the TV when Jared comes in, and he tucks it guiltily away and like, immediately pretends he wasn’t doing that. Jared’s never seen Nutella in the apartment before. Or anything that doesn’t fit in to Bryce’s nutrition plan. Now he’s wondering if Bryce has a secret treat drawer, like that drawer at home — well, his parents’ — that’s basically ‘Junk Food For Everyone But Jared, Jared Go Eat An Apple Or Something’. 

“I saw that,” Jared says.

“Saw what?” Bryce asks weakly. He tastes sweet when Jared kisses him.

“Where’s the secret snack drawer?” Jared asks.

“What secret—” Bryce tries. He doesn’t even get through the deflection before he caves and shows Jared his stash, pouting when Jared filches a Kit-Kat bar from it. Jared generously gives him one of the sticks, and Bryce argues he deserves half because it’s _his_ secret drawer, but he already had Nutella, and part of living together is _sharing_ the secret drawers, so he loses that argument.

Jared elides the fact that Bryce is back to grunt status with his dad when he tells him about dinner over Kit-Kat dipped in Nutella, but he does mention his mom’s invitation to come around for dinner whenever he wants after ranting about larcenous siblings.

“Let me know next time you’re going and I’ll tag along,” Bryce says, because he is a braver man than Jared. Braver, and also foolish. Like sure, Jared will tag along if Elaine invites him: Elaine’s, you know. Nice. The Mathesons remain hobgoblins. Jared included, probably, but love is blind or whatever, so Bryce doesn’t seem to notice.

Maybe Jared _should_ mention Bryce is back to grunt status with his dad. Probably best for him to go in prepared.

Bryce just shrugs when Jared warns him. “I’ll win him over eventually,” he says confidently, then scowls when Jared pats his shoulder placatingly in response.


End file.
